Hamilton, Bottas team orders won't come from Wolff

Saturday, 13 october 2018, 04:53
, by Matthew Scott

Toto Wolff says he will not be involved in any Mercedes decisions to impose team orders on Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in the last four races of 2018. Wolff took responsibility for the decision to swap the drivers in Russia recently, but says future orders will come from chief strategist James Vowles.

Team orders were not required in Japan last time out as Hamilton ed a dominant one-two from Bottas, but the memory of Sochi was still fresh in the memory in Suzuka.

Wolff said that his chatter over team radio led to Hamilton being pitted late in Russia, helping Sebastian Vettel jump him, and said that Vowles made an order for "quiet on the radio" in Jpaane, adding: "He means me, I guess."

This time next week… we’ll be back on track in The Lone Star State ????????

The Austrian said: "So when our plane flies in qualifying and in the race, James flies the airplane and all I can do is comment and give him feedback and input but ultimately it's his decision what to do.

"He's in command at that moment even though from my ranking I'm higher up. But I will not interfere. It is his call in the end."

Wolff added: "There is the race support room back in Brackley that is engaged, and we have all the clever guys there.

"So I'm having my special button with James Allison where we're offloading all the crap and vice versa, just not to offload it onto the guys that are actually flying the plane.

"Unless I am 100% convinced that he's not spotted something, which is when I will give him the input, I will not interfere with the final decision."

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